Sitemap
What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file in XML format that lists important pages, videos, and images on a website.
The Purpose of a Sitemap
A sitemap helps introduce the pages, videos, and images on a website to search engines and allows bots to crawl the site more efficiently.
Best Practices to Follow for Sitemap
There are several important points to keep in mind when creating a sitemap, such as the URL limit on the file, the location of the sitemap, and the format of the URLs within the file.
URL Limit on a Sitemap
In all formats (XML, text sitemap, or RSS, mRSS, and Atom 1.0), a sitemap can have a maximum file size of 50 MB or contain up to 50,000 URLs. If your sitemap exceeds these limits, you will need to create multiple sitemaps.
Sitemap Location and Character Encoding
The generated sitemap must be in UTF-8 format and should be stored in the root directory of the website.
URL Properties
URLs in the sitemap must be included in their absolute version rather than the relative version.
For example, instead of using the relative version /en/sitemap/, the full version https://juniortoexpert.com/en/sitemap/ should be included in the sitemap.
Note: A sitemap should not contain 3xx (redirect) or 4xx (error) links it should only include URLs with a 200 status code. Including 3xx and 4xx links can negatively impact the crawl budget, making it harder for search engines to efficiently index your website.
Submit Sitemap to Google
To promote the sitemap to Google, add your sitemap link in the “Add a new sitemap” section from the Sitemaps field in the Google Search Console panel.
Note: Add your sitemap under the domain name where your website is located.
FAQ About Sitemaps
Do Websites Need a Sitemap?
If the internal linking structure of a website is well-organized, search engine bots can discover, crawl, and index pages. However, sitemaps are recommended as they help search engine bots navigate the site more efficiently.
Note: A sitemap assists search engines but does not guarantee that bots will crawl and index the pages. In general, having a sitemap is advantageous for websites.
How to Delete a Sitemap from Search Console?
In the Search Console panel, go to the Sitemaps section, open the sitemap you want to delete, and click the three dots in the top-right corner to remove it.
After deleting the sitemap from Search Console, make sure to delete the file from your website as well. This prevents search engines from accessing the removed sitemap.
Related video:
Does Google use changefreq, and priority elements?
No. Google doesn’t use changefreq and priority elements.